William Shakespeare

English playwright and poet (1564–1616)

32 dated entries naming William Shakespeare, drawn from 26 separate years between 1582 CE and 2020 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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16th century

1582November 29 – Ten years before he begins writing his first known plays, William Shakespeare, 18 years old, marries pregnant 26-year-old Anne Hathaway in England.source
1593After April – William Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis probably becomes his first published work, printed in London from his own manuscript. In his lifetime it will be his most frequently reprinted work: at least nine times.source
1594December 28 – The earliest known performance of William Shakespeare's play The Comedy of Errors takes place at Gray's Inn in London, and is played by the Lord Chamberlain's Men acting company. The production is held before members of the English court on Innocents' Day as part of the Gray's Inn Christmas festivities.source
1595Probable first performance of William Shakespeare's plays Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream in London.source
1595December 9 – What is probably the first performance of William Shakespeare's play, Richard II, takes place in London.source
1596August 11 – Hamnet Shakespeare, son of William Shakespeare (b. 1585)source
1597April 23 – Probable first performance of William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.source
1598July 22 – William Shakespeare registers the rights to his new play, The Merchant of Venice, in the Register of the Stationers Company, under the title The Marchaunt of Venyce or otherwise called The Jewe of Venyce.source
1599February 21 – At Southwark, near London on the south bank of the River Thames, the land upon which the Globe Theatre will be built is leased by Nicholas Brend to a team of investors led by William Shakespeare, Thomas Pope, actors Cuthbert and Richard Burbage, and three others.source
1600William Shakespeare's plays Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing are published in London.source

17th century

1601Possible first performance of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, perhaps in springtime.source
1601September 7 – John Shakespeare, English glover, father of William Shakespeare (b. 1529)source
1602William Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor.source
1602February 2 (Candlemas night) – In London, the first known production of William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night takes place.source
1602July 26 – William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, recently premiered by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, is licensed for publishing in London but not in fact printed at this time.source
1603May 19 – The King's Men, a troupe of English professional actors composed primarily of former members of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, is granted its royal patent by King James. The company will give the first performances of many of the plays of William Shakespeare, who is one of the company's 26 principal actors. Named in order of priority on the patent are manager Lawrence Fletcher, Shakespeare, and Richard Burbage.source
1604November 1 – The first recorded performance of William Shakespeare's tragedy, Othello, takes place at the Palace of Whitehall in London.source
1605January 1 – William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, copyrighted 1600, is given its earliest recorded performance, and witnessed by the Viscount Dorchester.source
1606August (approx.) – Possible first performance of William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth in London.source
1606December 26 – William Shakespeare's play King Lear is given its first recorded performance, staged at the Palace of Whitehall.source
1607June 5 – Dr John Hall marries Susanna, daughter of William Shakespeare, at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon (England).source
1609May 20 – London publisher Thomas Thorpe issues Shake-speares Sonnets, with a dedication to "Mr. W.H.", and the poem A Lover's Complaint appended; it is uncertain whether this publication has Shakespeare's authority.source
1610April 20 – William Shakespeare's play, The Tragedie of Macbeth, is given its first performance, staged at the Globe Theatre in London.source
1611May 11 – The first known performance of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, probably new this year, is given at the Globe Theatre in London.source
1611November 1 – At Whitehall Palace in London, William Shakespeare's last solo play, The Tempest, is given its earliest reported performance.source
1623November 8–December 5 – Publication between these dates in London of the "First Folio" (Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies), a collection of 36 of the plays of Shakespeare, half of which have not previously been printed.source
1662February 9 – Judith Quiney, English daughter of William Shakespeare (b. 1585)source
1692May 2 – The first performance of the semi-opera The Fairy-Queen by Henry Purcell, based on William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, takes place at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden in London.source

18th century

1709The first modern edition of William Shakespeare's plays is published in London, edited by Nicholas Rowe.source
1757April 29 – Inside the house at Stratford-upon-Avon in England known as Shakespeare's Birthplace, a bricklayer, identified only as "Mosely", re-tiling the roof, discovers a supposed pro-Catholic testament of John Shakespeare, father of William Shakespeare, more than 150 years after the elder's death. The finding starts "what remains one of the most controversial topics in Shakespeare studies" because of disagreements over its authenticity and date.source

20th century

1978February 11 – The People's Republic of China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.source

21st century

2020September 19 – A 1634 edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen, the last play by English playwright William Shakespeare, is discovered at the Royal Scots College's library in Salamanca, Spain. It is believed to be the oldest copy of any of his works in the country.source